Woods Hole Film Festival 2009

East meets West in the Deep South. Behind high security towers and a double row of barbed wire and electrical fence, dwells a host of convicts who will never see the light of day. But for some of these men, a spark was ignited, and an overcrowded maximum-security prison is forever changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program.

The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely documents the stories of 36 prison inmates who enter into an arduous and intensive Vipassana meditation program. It challenges assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation and raises the question: is it possible for these men, some of whom have committed horrendous crimes, to change?